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Pedalboards


EskimoBassist
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Hey there

Well im coming round to buying myself a fairly large pedal board, and i was interested what makes people would recommend. I am quite interested in either a Diago or an NSP board, but i have found that Spider cases are quite cheaper and of a similar size. Does anybody have any experience with these boards? If i went with a Diago i would have to buy the Tourman and i was wondering how durable their construction is in comparison to the metal edged Spider boards.

Thanks, Rich

[post="0"]Spider Engineering XLarge Case[/post]

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I've got the medium one of those. They are very good for the money, and built like a tank. The handle is very comfy too, much better than the thin rubber strap you get on most cases. Inside you get a plywood board sprayed black and some velcro to which you attach your pedals. I screwed rubber feet onto the bottom of the board to raise it so that I could feed cables underneath and also to raise the pedal height which provides better contact between the pedals and the foam in the lid (as the case is pretty deep). I've also got some fluffy speaker cab cloth and spray glue from Maplins which I was gonna fix onto the board to provide 100% covering.

They are very bulky though and weigh quite a bit (the xtra large one will kill your arms when loaded with pedals, better get working out!). If you want something slimmer and lighter the Diago boards are great, and the Pedaltrains look pretty cool. But then again, the Spider is hard to beat price wise.

Edited by dannybuoy
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I have the Diago Tourman. It is unwieldy, and you would do well to nailgun the internal velcro down (heavy pedals have made mine come up in transit). You don't need to worry about the durability though. It is very well built (I've stood on it fully loaded, and not had any problems), although I can't help feeling I could probably build something similar for a fraction of the price if pushed ;p

Bloody heavy when you've got a dozen or so mid-large size pedals in it, and the handle is totally not fit for carrying something that heavily laden around for anything more than a few seconds at a time. Does the job well though, can't really fault the protection it gives me at all, and when you have cars, it doesn't matter about carrying it. Doesn't help when you have to carry it up and down 6 flights of stairs to your practice room though ¬_¬

I'd love a pedaltrain, but they're so expensive :)

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I personally wouldn't recommend the Diago's, especially the bigger ones if you're going to be doing serious touring. They are just chipboard.
The guitarist in my band had the Tourman and it constantly falls to bits, he's replacing the hinges and catches all the time. Meanwhile, I bought a large mixer flight case (full flight ATA) brand new from a small flight case company from their 'bargain bin' for £50 and two years later and loads of tours and a few fligts later it's still going strong.

I'd say go NSP or Spider. Or watch out for cases on used cases on Ebay. If you want a largeish one look for mixer or keyboard ones. Generally, ones made specifically for pedalboards are loads more for no good reason.

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Depends what you want it for. If it's just for practising and the odd gig, not touring, then you could do a lot worse then build your own to save some money. And it's a lot of fun if you like that kind of thing.

I'm currently making one out of a couple of old shelves. I've cut to exactly the size I want, with holes for leads/power cables etc in the places I need em, and it's cost me...well...nothing.

Slap some black paint on I had lying around, some old corner protectors from an old cab and it'll be the nuts. Metal retainers for the pedals made out of Meccano (is that how you spell it?) and some velcro from the wife's sewing kit and away we go. I might have to buy some metal strips for the sides for extra protection but that'll only be a few quid.

Mind you a mate of mine has his own workshop with the right tools, and he got an "A" in woodwork at school so that makes it a lot easier.

The Diago power supplies are pretty good. And small. Dunno about the boards though.

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I'm strongly considering building my own board once I have all my pedals. I'd want to build something with a raised back row though. Only problem is building it - wood is the only affordable option which has any durability, but I don't want it to weigh an absolute ton. Don't know what other avenues to go down though really :/

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Due to persistent impulse buying (is there any other why of buying stuff??!?) I've just bought one of those XL Spider cases, I should have it by Tuesday. If anyone's interested I'll post a little review on it once I've used it a bit.

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  • 2 weeks later...

[quote name='BTGAndy' post='192764' date='May 6 2008, 10:48 AM'][url="http://www.trailertrashpedalboards.com"]Trailer Trash Pedalboards[/url]

The only option guys, I bought one recently and it's the best thing since sliced bread.[/quote]

Check out the glowing boards! I need a change of underpants.

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I've got a Diago gigman for bass and a Flightcase Warehouse (ie Spider Engineering) large or possibly XL board for guitar - the Diago is extremely well put together IMO although I think if I used it on tour, I'm not sure how long it would stay together, but I've found it to be very good, a nice size and well made. The flightcase warehouse board is f*cking humungous, built like a tank and looks to be largely indestructible. You need to work out a way of fixing your pedals to the hexboard - I carpeted mine with velcro and used carpet glue to keep it tacked down properly. The biggest problem I have is that full of pedals, it weighs more than my cab - which is a lot. The other problem is, that I had to put another bit of hexboard or ply underneath the board that the pedals are on, so I could get the pedals closer to the edge of the board - without the board underneath to raise the pedalboard, the input/output jack sockets were below the edge of the case and you couldn't plug them in. I'd say it's pretty much indestructible in normal use though

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[quote name='mikeh' post='192775' date='May 6 2008, 11:06 AM']I've just taken delivery of a Spider medium sized pedal board Flight Case, and first impressions are VERY good.[/quote]

yeah my XL came this morning, it's a biggen, and a gooden, fits my Pod XT Live + 5 pedals easily. My only issue is that my patch cables and power cables aren't long enough :)

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I was admiring that glowy blue pedalboard the other day :)

It does look ace, but I couldn't lay down that much money on one of those. Even if it isn't an expensive glowy blue one, it is still expensive!

If I have problems outgrowing my Diago, I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't think I'm skilled enough to make my own board, as much as I want to.

The Spider ones aren't as big as the Diago, and I don't think the Pedaltrain Pro is either.

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I'd never heard of Trailer Trash but that does look really good. I used to use a Pedaltrain in my guitar playing days and I can vouch for them being as solid as a rock. You will be unable to break it. Good solid flight case too. It replaced a Warwick powered pedalboard which didn't work and basically fell apart. Not recommended

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